Rightways

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Terrorist attack on missing MH370 not ruled out

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the chief of Malaysia's civil aviation, said
hijacking has not been ruled out as a cause of the plane's
disappearance. He told the BBC that what happened to the jet remains "a
mystery". No sightings of debris from the plane in the seas south of
Vietnam have been confirmed.

Terrorism has not been ruled out as a possible cause. Counter-terrorism
agencies and the FBI are involved in the operation. It emerged that two
passengers who boarded the flight were using passports stolen in
Thailand some years back.

The passports were Italian and Austrian. The
passengers travelling with them had bought their tickets at the same
time from China Southern Airlines which shared the flight with Malaysia
Airlines, had consecutive ticket numbers and were both booked on the
same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday. The news emerged
when the real owners of the passports were reported safe and sound and
not on any flight.

Ronald Noble, the secretary general of
Interpol, said in a statement that while it was too soon to speculate on
any connection between the theft and the plane's disappearance, it was
"clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an
international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol
databases".

The passengers on the flight were of 14 different
nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from
elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

Five passengers booked on the flight did not board, and their luggage was consequently removed.

China has sent a team of government officials to Kuala Lumpur to look into the case.

Malaysian King Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah offered his condolences to the passengers.

He said he and the Queen "would like to express our sympathy to the passengers and crew, especially to their family".

However,
relatives waiting for news are getting increasingly frustrated, saying
they are not getting information on time and that no government
officials have visited them, the BBC's correspondent in Beijing adds.

A SHADOWY group called the Chinese
Martyrs’ Brigade claimed responsibility for the disappearance of Flight
MH370 — but officials were sceptical and said the claim could be a hoax.

The group — unheard of before now — on Sunday sent an email to
journalists across China that read: “You kill one of our clan, we will
kill 100 of you as pay back,” but the message provided no details of
what brought the flight down.